Jun 30, 2009

Back in March Larry Johnson kindly took time to review the items in his collection related to Camp Okee and Camp Siouan, compare them to the listings on my web site, and send me pictures of items I was missing, including items like a Camp Okee belt buckle and mug.

I was particularly excited to receive a picture of a virtually mint condition red silkscreen on white felt Camp Okee patch (see above). It replaces the example I had below:

Jun 24, 2009

Although they are technically more Council event patches than Order of the Arrow event patches, I've included the Heritage District Fall Camporee patches in the Lodge 333 activity emblems page because those events are sponsored annually by Wicomico Chapter of Wahunsenakah Lodge.

George Homewood kindly noticed my omission of First Colony District Winter Camporee patches, and generously sent several to me for inclusion on the site since this event is sponsored each year by Piankatank Chapter of Wahunsenakah Lodge.

Thanks to George you will now find pictures of the patches issued for this event from the years 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009. An interesting feature of the most recent patches is the inclusion of an event name in the Native American language. See the listings for translations!

Jun 23, 2009

George Homewood, Lodge Advisor for Wahunsenakah, shared this patch issued at the recent Lodge Leadership Development Conference. The 2009 LLDC for Lodge 333 was held June 5-6 at the Indiantown Hunt Club, near Capron, VA. The patch design features a council of native Americans with the National OA logo for LLDC superimposed.

Jun 13, 2009

Lodge 333 Advisor George Homewood shared the design for the Wahunsenakah 2009 NOAC flap and pocket chevron you see above. The clever and innovative "Science Duck" flap set was designed by Lodge member Casey Johnson, who also designed the 2009 SR-7A conclave flaps for the Lodge.

Jun 12, 2009

After former Chanco Lodge Chief Ben Vincent supplied me with over 70 scanned copies of theChanco Courier newsletter spanning over 4 decades, he decided to continue his contributions by filling in the needs of Old Dominion Area Council camp patches.

I am in the process of adding the pictures to this web site, and began this evening with a picture of a white Camp Waters felt patch with a single brown feather stitched on to indicate the year it was earned: 1944.

Previously I had a photo of the white felt Camp Waters Indian profile patch with feathers for the years 1947, 1948, and 1949, so it was interesting to learn the same patch was used for at least 5 years for campers who spent part of their summers at this camp which served Old Dominion Area Council from 1928 to 1966.

The camp was physically located on a bluff overlooking the James River, almost directly across from Jamestown, and was named after Col. Francis E. Waters, president of Surry Lumber Company, which donated the 30 acres for the camp site. For more details about Camp Waters on the James including a map of the property, be sure to read The Chanco Chronicles 1952-1992.

Jun 11, 2009

Former Chanco Lodge Chief Ben Vincent supplied me with an excellent picture of Lodge 483's first activity patch, issued for the 1957 Jamestown Pilgrimage. I didn't have this emblem listed on the 483 Activity Emblems page since I used an early edition of the Blue Book as my original reference and it is not listed there (it is included in Blue Book VI). Ben spotted the omission and kindly notified me and sent along the needed picture of the patch.

In the History of Chanco Lodge 483 WWW, published in 1972, Jack Oliver, who assembled the first Chanco Lodge patch collection for display, describes this patch as "representing Chanco Lodge's trip to Jamestown to put on the Chanco Story," a pageant performed by the Lodge that told the story of how the young Indian brave Chanco saved the Jamestown colonists from a surprise attack in 1622. The entire script of the pageant is included in the History of Chanco Lodge 483 WWW document.

"During the early 1950's, Chanco Lodge began its slow but steady growth. An early activity that proved to be popular was a pilgrimage to the Chanco Lodge Memorial located in the courthouse square at Surry, Virginia. The first pilgrimage was held on August 8, 1954. ...

Another memorable event was the performance by the Chanco Lodge dance team at the 1957 Jamestown Festival held at the Jamestown Island Historical Area. A commemorative patch was issued in honor of this event. At later lodge functions, home movies of this performance have been replayed."

I sent an email to Ben asking for information about the event this patch was issued for, and he kindly provided the following additional details:

Chanco Lodge was invited by the APVA (Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, I think!) to participate in the 1957 Jamestown Festival. This event was commemorating the 350th Anniversary of the founding of Jamestown in 1607. The play, “Chanco, the Real American” by Herbert Cobb was presented. If you will look more closely at the script of the play in the earlier “History of Chanco Lodge,”,you will see various places where it calls for the dancers to perform. I loosely used the term dance team performance for what was indeed a far bigger undertaking. There were several dance team performances, all part of the larger pageant. We used to show old home movies of this performance at later fellowships/ordeals, etc. We always referred to them as the dance team performing at Jamestown.

I did mention the pageant in the Chronicles. It is found on Page 5 in the section on Camp Waters. This play was put on there for several years. It was also performed on a few other occasions at schools and at Scout Expos.

Please note that the pilgrimages to the Chanco Lodge Memorial located in the Surry County Courthouse Square, are different events than the Pilgrimage to Jamestown in 1957."

In the list of Chanco emblems that DeWitt Holland sent to me entitled Chanco Lodge Issues 1952-1995 there are two versions listed of this patch, with the difference described as "2 Varietys, Leader's or Boy's, Yellow or Blue behind arrow." I am trying to locate a photo of the leader version for inclusion on this web site - let me know if you have one to share!

Jun 10, 2009

In October of 2006 an eBay auction featuring the original Kecoughtan A-1 arrowhead patch pattern from the manufacturer was won by Michael McCaughan, a Virginia OA collector and member of Blue Heron Lodge 349.

Michael was kind to share pictures of the pattern and the sample patch with me to include on my web site. He described the pictures in an email:

Here is a picture of the A1 design, the A1 they retained as a sample, and a close up picture of the thread count (in case you were curious). There is also what I think may be an order date (7/52) written in pencil on the top.

I asked Michael if he knew how the patch pattern came to be sold on eBay and he provided this explanation about the source, which is believed to be Midwest Swiss Embroideries of Chicago, Illinois, which was founded in 1950:

Apparently all their stuff was in storage in a warehouse in Chicago and the entire warehouse was sold off and cleaned out. All the patches were rescued by one of the workers who recognized the patches as Boy Scout items from his own time there and took the lot of them and put them in a garage/storage unit. Periodically he's been picking his way through it and eBaying the Boy Scout stuff.

The pictures above and below link to full-size images. The pattern itself should definitely be viewed enlarged so that you can appreciate the fine hand-drawn details of the design that dates back over half a century ago, long before the age of computer aided design programs!

Note that it was not unusual for a patch manufacturer to retain a slightly flawed patch in their files like the one above missing a letter, since the sample did not need to be perfect but the finished product delivered to the customer should be.

I finally managed to pick up a Kecoughtan Lodge 1988 Summer Ordeal patch from eBay to complete my 1980's activity patch needs. Now I lack just four regular issue activity patches to complete my Kecoughtan Lodge Activity patch collection. The items I lack are all from the earliest years of the Lodge's emblems. Pictured above, they are:

1957 Fellowship (with Blue Heron Lodge)

1966 Fall Fellowship (silkscreened neckerchief)

1967 Fall Fellowship

1969 Winter Ordeal

Should you happen to have any of these for sale or trade, please let me know. I'm eager to not only complete my collection, but also to begin work on a comprehensive guide to Kecoughtan Lodge emblems that will be available in PDF format with high quality, full sized pictures.